By Gary Nager
As most people who ever met him can probably agree, you never forget the first time you meet Don Porter, who passed away on July 1 at the too-young age of 73.
The man whose family would end up developing the 5,000-acre Wiregrass Ranch and I had spoken on the phone several times after I purchased the Neighborhood News in 1994, but it wasn’t until the late 1990s that I first stepped foot into the only (at the time) vertical structure, residential or commercial, on the undeveloped portion of what is today the Wiregrass Ranch Development of Regional Impact.
Don and his wife Lajuana greeted me at the door and told me how much they enjoyed reading this publication, especially my editorials. “I really like it when you’re wrong, young man,” he told me with a smile in his drawling baritone. “I’ve had a good laugh at your expense a few times.”
The things that most impressed me about Don at that first meeting were his obvious love and respect for his wife (who passed away in 2008) and his family, his intelligence, his impressive book collection and his lack of desire to see anything developed on the (at that time) still-undeveloped portion of his family’s ranch, which had encompassed about 14,000 acres before pieces of it became the Saddlebrook Resort and surrounding community, Williamsburg and later, the two original sections of Meadow Pointe. His father, James “Wiregrass” Porter, had purchased the land stretching from S.R. 54 down to what today is County Line Rd. for $2 per acre in 1946, but even so, Don and his brothers never really thought about the prime real estate as an investment.
“I am not a developer,” Don told me. “My job is to be a good steward of this land, so I don’t think you’ll see anything else developed on this ranch, at least not in my lifetime. Maybe in my children’s lifetimes, but not in mine.”
But, when the local real estate market boomed in the early 2000s and big residential and commercial developers came knocking with offers of tens of thousands of dollars per acre, Don and his son JD did finally agree to allow the family’s remaining property to be developed, as long as they were able to control what could and couldn’t be built on the site.
Don and I spoke for more than an hour that day, over a good glass of single malt Scotch (although he scoffed at my request for ice cubes). One of my favorite stories was him telling me about the first time he ever took down a deer.
“My brothers and I rode on horseback all the way down to what is now Tampa Palms,” he said. “Everything between here and there was ranch land and orange groves at that time, with several ranching families all allowing their herds to mingle, in case the government ever came in to count how many head of cattle we each had. The only way we could tell whose cattle were whose was by the brands on them.”
With memories of him like that, it was hard for me to hear that Don had passed away so young and seemingly so suddenly, as he appeared to be in tremendous spirits at the dedication of Pasco Hernando State College’s Porter Campus (which was built on land donated by the Porters) earlier this year. He may not have wanted to develop the family’s property, but he was obviously proud to have his family’s name be attached to an institution of higher learning.
So, yes, I was one of at least 300 people who attended the memorial service in Don’s honor on July 12, in the packed PHSC Porter Campus conference room.
JD, his sister Quinn, Don’s cousin Tom and four of Don’s closest friends (including Florida House Speaker Will Weatherford) spoke with love and humor about Don and his collections of sweaters and leather pants, James (who was 86 when he passed away in 2003) and his “Olympic champion cussing,” Lajuana and what it was like to know all of them.
JD noted that although Don was proud to have his family’s name associated with the college, Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel and the Wiregrass Mall, “the thing that mattered most to him was our family and our legacy. He didn’t think of himself as a pioneer or a visionary. The life lessons he taught us are what he would want to be remembered for.”
Quinn also mentioned that her sweet father, “believed in determination, seeing it through, and that no amount of fear, anxiety or difficulty should keep you from accomplishing your goals.”
And, Rep. Weatherford said that although he had met a lot of land owners during his time in the State Legislature, he had never met one, “as keenly focused on the future of his community as Don Porter.” Rest in Peace, Don.
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